Putnam Competition

The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, often called just the Putnam Competition, is an annual competition for college math students sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America in which the contestants try to solve twelve mathematical problems in less than 8 hours. Each university may send as many contestants as it wants but must designate three of those to be the official team representing the college in the competition, and there are prizes given to the colleges with the best-scoring official teams. The top five individual scorers, regardless of whether or not they are on an official team, are then given the title Putnam Fellow and a US$2500 scholarship. The competition was established in 1927 by Elizabeth Putnam to the memory of her late husband William Lowell Putnam, Sr.